NATO organizing shipment of Soviet-era arms to Iraqi military

Published: Wednesday, January 12, 2005

PAUL AMESAssociated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)  NATO is organizing the shipment to Iraq of thousands of AK-47 assault rifles, dozens of Soviet-designed tanks and other weapons as part of the alliance's program to help train and equip the Iraqi military, officials said Wednesday.

NATO also is arranging the transport of 77 T-72 tanks from Hungary to Iraq, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

All arms and military hardware were being given as a donation.

The alliance agreed last year to help coordinate the supply of weapons to Iraq's fledgling armed forces.

Several former Warsaw Pact nations that joined NATO last year have surpluses of Soviet-era equipment, which military experts say is ideal for the Iraqi military because it familiar with those weapons from the days of Saddam Hussein.

Officials said about 100 NATO personnel were in Iraq preparing an expansion of the alliance's training mission, which was launched in August.

Alliance foreign ministers last month approved plans to expand the mission to about 300 personnel early this year, but officials said many of those due to deploy were still undergoing preparation.

In Afghanistan, NATO is expected to announce next month it is ready to expand its peacekeeping mission into the country's west. The operation, with about 8,000 troops, is currently limited to Kabul, the capital, and a northern sector.

NATO has long been trying to persuade nations to provide troops for the western expansion. Under the plans, the United States will place military units already in the cities of Herat and Farah under NATO command while European nations set up similar missions in the western towns of Chaghcharan and Qala-e-Naw.

Expanding the NATO force will allow the separate U.S.-led mission of 18,000 to focus on fighting remnants of the Taliban regime and their al-Qaida allies, mainly in the south and east.

Alliance military planners are drawing up options for bringing the two operations together under NATO command, a move supported by the United States but questioned by Germany and France. NATO defense ministers are set to discuss the integration of the forces next month at a meeting in the French resort of Nice.